Sooo, hubby said he was running errands and did I need anything. I asked him to pick up -A- bag of Bobs Red Mill multi grain cereal for bread making.

A bag.

Indicating one.

Here is what he came home with, bless his little heart!

The people at Bobs Red Mill should be very happy with my husband. Anyone up for some Pirates of the Caribbean Monopoly? Sorry? Those games were already there, btw.

He happened to go to Big Lots (remember Pic n Save?) and pretty much bought them out on their baking cereals. Even picked up some gluten-free mix and some polenta. (Polenta, really?) He is too generous for his own good and he brought me home 2 bags of granola too, as well as a brownie mix we haven’t tried. This kind of reminds me of a commercial for TWC, where some guy is supposed to go pick out a sofa and comes home with a whole living room set, hmmm….

So, since I had the gluten-free mix, and some organic blueberries in the fridge, I thought I might as well make muffins.

I mixed the gluten-free mix I had of my own with about half the bag of Bobs GF mix. I have heard people complain that their mix is too beany and has a bean aftertaste in the baked goods. So I mixed it up a bit.

You tell me…

Blueberries bursting all over the place.

I thought they needed a little something, so I brushed melted butter on top and sprinkles cinnamon sugar. Its like pixie-dust, it makes the muffins fly right off the plates! You would never know these were gluten-free. They are just darn good muffins.

Here is the recipe. Feel free to adapt. You could make them dairy free with substitutions, like using coconut oil or other fruit for the blueberries or add nuts or use buttermilk…

GLUTEN FREE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

2 cups gluten-free all-purpose baking flour

1/2 cup brown sugar plus 1/4 cup white sugar. Or use all of one or the other

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled.

1/2 cup whole milk (I actually put a large blob of sour cream in the measuring cup and then filled it up to the 1/2 cup mark, whisking it smooth.)

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (or frozen, but be careful. They will turn batter blue. I add them to each muffin individually, putting some batter in, adding frozen berries and then more batter.)

Preheat oven to 375.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

In another bowl whisk together the wet stuff, like butter, vanilla, milk/sour cream mixture, eggs, and zest.

Now just stir these two groups together until pretty much mixed up (that almost sounds political, doesn’t it?)

Add the berries and mix some more, making sure there are not pockets of dry stuff. Batter will thicken up. It says not to over stir, but you certainly don’t have to worry about developing gluten, which is why you don’t stir regular muffins much. But whatever.

Put cute little muffin papers in each muffin cup. Add a large scoop of batter, filling to the top, but not over. I set the muffin pan on a baking sheet just in case it spills over or is thinking about burning the bottoms.

Bake 10 minutes, then rotate pans. Bake another 10 minutes or until they start to get a bit brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.Cool a few minutes in the pan, as they are hot as the dickens to touch! Then put on a rack to cool.

After they are cooled:

Melt just a bit of butter and brush it over the tops. Sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar blend.

Then dig in!

So, what have you all been up to this summer? It is really a busy time of year for many folks. Some of you are doing room additions, others are vacationing, while some are staying home to sew up long overdue projects.

We went to the beach yesterday. What a beautiful day!

We were visiting Corona Del Mar. I guess everybody thought this was a good idea, because it was pretty crowded. Lots of sand castle building going on.

My freezer is full of summer tomatoes. Time to get some cilantro and make some pico de gallo!

“You mean WE get to eat this??”

These are just screaming to be made into pulled pork sandwiches. If they don’t sell at the bake sale tomorrow…We’s eatin them!

I am actually going to a friend’s house soon to have a little pie crust workshop. I am pie crust impaired. I am tired of everyone telling me how easy it is. Buying the pie crust is easy too. But if Rita thinks she can teach me, she is a high school chemistry teacher so maybe she can. My friend baking Julie also offered to help me. She is the sourdough queen among other things. (See what I mean? Everyone else seems to be able to make pie crust.) So whichever house I make it too first. I should probably go to both. I need that much help.

I went to another friends house just last week and we did some canning, making some wonderful jams. But somehow I dont see any pictures of them! What was I thinking?

Oh wait, I found one…

The other Linda and a Rockcroc full of strawberry jam. The other pot has peach-strawberry-raspberry jam simmering.

Or two:

More tomatoes. Did you know you can just wash them, remove the stem and put bags of them in the freezer? Then, when its time to make sauce, you take them out and as they defrost, they melt down. You can just pick the skins right out. (Or use a food processor and grind them in.)

Someone had his birthday…

And someone else got a hair cut! He must have lost at least 10 pounds!

So that pretty much sums up our summer thus far. That and ribbons from the fair, but that’s another story. I haven’t been there yet.